New head of the UOC MP is a committed supporter of the unity of the Russain Orthodox Church, - metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

"I am glad that the Bishops’ Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been a success. By a free vote of the archpastors, a new Primate of the Ukrainian Church has been elected. In spite of hard political circumstances, the Ukrainian episcopate, which represents all the regions of the country, has shown cohesion and fraternal unity", Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations said in his comment to the UNIAN news agency about the choice of the Ukrainian bishops who elected metropolitan Onufry as a new head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate.

"The choice made by the Ukrainian episcopate was not surprising for me, since very many in our Church know and love His Eminence Onufry. He is a spiritual and devout person who enjoys authority both among the monastics and the laity at large. His Eminence is a committed supporter of the unity of the Russain Orthodox Church of which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a self-governed part", stressed the metropolitan.

As RISU informed yesterday, The Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarcahte elected its Primate. The present Locum Tenens of the Kyiv Cathedra Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna will lead this Church. The results of the elections of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine were announced on August 13, the same day the elections started. Forty-eight bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church out of 78 voted for this candidate.